Colonel Daddy

Clearing his throat, Tom spoke up. “Kate, it’s good to see you.” The understatement of the century, he thought, and tried to will his hardened body into submission.

“Thomas,” she started and he had to smile. She was the only person he knew who always called him Thomas.

He took a step toward her, but she backed up and held out one hand toward him, palm up, to stop him.

“Thomas, we have to talk.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, knowing she was right to keep her distance. Ever since the day they’d met, there had been fireworks between them. Distance was their only hope. “We do. Kate, we can work with this situation,” Tom said. “We’re both professionals. Our private time together doesn’t have to intrude on our careers.”

She took off her hat, tossed it onto a nearby chair, then ran her fingers through her hair. He thought he detected a glimmer of a wry grin before her expression evened out again.

“I’m afraid that ship has sailed, Thomas,” she told him softly.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Do you remember that last night in Japan?” she asked, gripping her hands in front of her waist so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Remember it? he wanted to say. The memories still kept him awake at night, his body hard, his mind filled with thoughts of her. They’d toasted each other over a bottle of champagne and spent an hour deciding where they would meet the following year, finally settling on Copenhagen. Then they’d gone out to the balcony of their ridiculously expensive hotel suite and made love under the stars for hours. The memories were so fresh, so ingrained on his mind, Thomas could almost smell the sea air, taste the champagne he’d dribbled onto her nipples and then licked off as she writhed beneath him, moaning his name.

He groaned silently as his body tightened uncomfortably. Aloud, he said only, “Yeah. I remember.”

His gaze locked on her face, he saw that she, too, was recalling that night. And if he didn’t know better, he’d swear that Major Kate Jennings was blushing. But Kate didn’t have an inhibited bone in her gorgeous body, so that couldn’t be right.

As their gazes met and held, he began to feel the first twinges of misgiving. She didn’t look like a woman who’d just dropped in on her lover for a little stroll down memory lane. “What’s this about, Kate?” he asked quietly. “What’s wrong?”

As he watched, her pale complexion went shades lighter. Not a good sign. She sucked in a gulp of air like a drowning woman, then blurted, “I’m pregnant, Thomas.”

Was that an earthquake?

Tom would have sworn the room had just trembled around him. He shook his head and flicked an uneasy glance at the framed picture of the President, hanging on the wall nearest him. Nope. The picture wasn’t swaying. There was no loud, trainlike rumble of sound.

So. It wasn’t the earth shaking.

It was him.

Katherine stared at him and watched several different expressions slide across his features. Stunned shock. Disbelief. Anxiety. And finally, acceptance. She recognized all of them. Hadn’t she seen the very same expressions staring back at her in the mirror only a month ago?

She hadn’t wanted to believe that early pregnancy test kit. At the time, she had still been so stressed from being transferred to Thomas’s base, she’d assumed that stress was messing up her cycle. After all, it wasn’t going to be easy to face her new commanding officer when that officer had seen her naked. So naturally, she’d bought a few more kits, hoping for a different result. But as she’d stared down at the four little test wands, each of them with a neatly stamped plus sign staring back at her, Kate had had to accept the truth.

She was single, thirty-two years old, a major in the Marines and pregnant for the first time.

Now, after living with the secret for a month, she waited to hear her lover’s reaction.

“How did this happen?” he said, almost to himself.

Her eyebrows lifted as she looked at him. “You said you remembered the balcony.”

“I do.”

“Then you also remember how neither of us wanted to get up and go inside for another condom.”

He rubbed one hand across his face as that one defining moment reared up in his mind. “Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah.” Unable to stand still another moment, Kate started pacing. Her high heels clicked against the linoleum floor, sounding like a rapidfire heartbeat.

Strange, she’d thought the burden of this secret would be lightened by sharing it. But nothing had changed. She was still facing a situation she had no idea how to handle.

And added to that, she couldn’t help worrying about what Thomas would say when he recovered from the initial shock.

Her career, her life, hung in the balance and seemed to be resting precariously on a tipped pair of scales. She’d spent nearly fourteen years in the Corps, building a career and a reputation to be proud of. It was all she knew. All she’d ever wanted.

All she had.

Now, that was all threatened. A pregnant, married Marine was acceptable. A pregnant unmarried Marine—particularly an officer—could find herself discharged. Or at the very least disgraced and her exemplary career in ruins. At that thought, Kate winced. If she lost the Corps, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

Hell. She wouldn’t even know who she was.

“Kate,” Tom said from across the room, “don’t work yourself up like this. We’ll figure something out.”

She stopped short suddenly and swiveled her head to look at him. One thing she had to make perfectly clear right from the beginning. “You should know, Thomas. Ending this pregnancy is not an option.”

He nodded and gave her a small smile. “I understand.”

“I’m not sure I do,” she countered and started pacing again. She had never given much thought to social issues. Especially the ones that didn’t concern her directly. She’d always been too focused on her career for that. But even Kate had been surprised at the strong, protective instinct that had swelled within her at the discovery of her pregnancy. “I’m a career woman, Thomas. And a firm believer in the ERA. Frankly, I didn’t think I’d feel like this. And I can’t tell other women what decisions to make about their lives. But for me, I’ve discovered that there is no decision to make. This baby is a fact. One that we have to deal with. One that isn’t going away.”

“Good.”

She stopped again, turning her head to look at him. “Good?”

He nodded and moved toward her. “I’m glad you feel that way, Kate. We can handle this. We’ll think of something.”

“We will, huh?” she said, and started pacing again. The sound of her heels on tile echoed on and on in her mind. So stupid. So...irresponsible. How could they have let this happen? They weren’t teenagers. They were supposed to be mature adults. Marines for God’s sake! Her stomach churned uneasily. “Think, you said?” she shook her head. “I hope you have better luck than I’ve had.” She paced right up to the wall and turned for the return trip. Glancing into his dark chocolate eyes, she added, “I’ve known about this for a month now and I haven’t been able to think of a blasted thing.”

“A month?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to tell a man, you know,” she snapped, then caught herself. Sarcasm wasn’t going to be a big help here. Throwing her hands up only to let them fall again, she said. “I needed time. To think. To...” pretend it wasn’t happening? she asked silently as her words trailed off.

“Do you want to leave the Corps?” he asked quietly.

“No!” Kate stopped dead, frozen in her tracks. Then she faced him. “Leave the Corps?” she repeated, as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “I can’t resign. The Corps is my life. As much as it is yours. I can’t—no. I won’t give it up.”

Did her voice really sound that shrill? Or was it just her?

“Well, then,” Thomas said. “That makes things even simpler.”

“I don’t see how.”

His gaze locked with hers. “You know the regulations on pregnancy as well as I do.”